In
the wake of Israel’s botched attack on a Turkish ship bringing relief
to Gazans from Israel’s (and Egypt’s) economic blockade of Gaza,
the Israelis have responded to intensely negative world opinion by
relaxing
the blockade. That move may help Israel as much as Gazans.
Ending the counterproductive economic embargo and blockade would help
both parties even more.

Israel
is now letting more goods flow into Gaza, but the blockade was
surprisingly
porous to begin with. When economic sanctions (prohibitions on
imports, exports, financial transactions, or movements of people) are
imposed, the economic pain often dissipates over time because prices
get bid up, thus creating big profits for smuggling. However,
when such sanctions are enforced physically with a naval blockade and
border closings (a land blockade), one would expect less attenuation
of pain over time.

Yet
even when the full Israeli and Egyptian blockade – imposed in 2007 to
cause pain among the Gazan population to prompt them to turn against
their government, run by the militant group Hamas – was enforced, many
goods were still available in Gaza. They were somehow brought
surreptitiously across borders or sent through underground smuggling
tunnels across the Gazan-Egyptian frontier. Where there is
a profit-induced
will, there is a way.

That
doesn’t mean the embargo and blockade had no economic and political
effects. But these effects may have actually hurt Israel,
as well as Gazans. Overall, the blockade helped Hamas, the precise
target of the Israeli policy. Surprisingly, Hamas isn’t that
well liked in Gaza, but people anywhere tend to rally around their
government
when they are under military or economic attack. What is called the
“rally around the flag effect” also occurred in the United States
after 9/11, when George W. Bush, who was shortly before elected with
only a minority of the popular vote, benefited from soaring approval
ratings. If we define terrorism as coercion designed to harm innocent
civilians to pressure their government to change policy, then Israel’s
attempt to economically strangle Gaza is economic terrorism.
Gazans resent the attempt at strangulation and provide greater support
to Hamas. What pain sanctions and blockade have inflicted on Gazans
has further radicalized them against Israel.

Furthermore, the blockade has made Gazan imports more expensive and
exports more difficult – Israel refuses to relax the export ban by
making the dubious claim that its security would be eroded by Gaza’s
increased export revenues – thus snuffing out legitimate businesses in
Gaza and undermining the above-ground local economy. Because of
commercial relationships at home and abroad, business people tend to be
less militant than Hamas. In addition, Gazans are no longer allowed to
work in Israel, requiring Israel to pay higher costs to import workers
from other nations abroad.

Lastly,
Hamas profits directly by involvement in or taxation of smuggling.
This counterproductive situation follows a rich tradition for heinous
regimes under sanction – for example, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and his
gang made out like the bandits they were during multilateral sanctions
before and after the first Gulf War.

The
grinding, comprehensive multilateral sanctions against Saddam – like
the embargo and blockade of Gaza – are litmus tests for the political
effects of sanctions. The sanctions against the Iraqi regime were
the most severe in history, and the blockade by two powerful nations
that completely surround the Gazans’ small area of land had the
potential
to be economically devastating. And in both cases, substantial
economic pain was initially inflicted but dissipated over time.
Yet Saddam did not remove his troops from Kuwait and survived subsequent
severe international economic pressure after the first Gulf War.
Similarly, Gaza has not prospered during the Israeli blockade, but Hamas
certainly has.

As
the United States should do with its ridiculously counterproductive
embargo against Fidel Castro’s Cuba – which has used the U.S. sanctions
as an external threat to win internal support and blame all of the
island’s
economic problems on the United States – Israel should dismantle all
aspects of its counterproductive blockade, not just relax a ban on
imports.
Increased commerce among Gazans and among Gaza, Israel, and the world would
undermine the Islamic radicalism on which Hamas prospers.

20120312488 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2Feland%2F2010%2F07%2F20%2Fending-the-gaza-blockade%2FEnding+the+Gaza+Blockade+Might+Help+Israel+as+Much+as+Gaza2010-07-21+06%3A00%3A46Ivan+Elandhttp%3A%2F%2Foriginal.antiwar.com%2F%3Fp%3D2012031248 to “Ending the Gaza Blockade Might Help Israel as Much as Gaza”

Wow, this article makes it sound as though the blockade was a mere inconvienience for the malnourished inmates of the Gaza prison. And to say Gaza's economic pain has dissipated would imply that they have an economy.